John Lewis declared that the “buzz” was back as it announced an upgrade of its Oxford Street shop, which included a Jamie Oliver cooking school and a revamped beauty section.
The London store will offer more than 40 cooking classes, led by the team of the celebrity chef. The cooking school will open in March 2025 and have two classrooms as well as a cafe with 50 seats.
John Lewis has launched a £800 million initiative over the next four years to improve its shopping experience. It also aims to regain its position as Middle England’s favorite retailer. Around half of this money will be invested into its 34 stores.
Peter Ruis said, “We want to invest in more stores.” Since the pandemic we have been reassured that the bricks-and-clicks [business model] is here to stay. “It’s obvious that shops will be around for a long time.”
Oxford Street, High Wycombe, and Cheadle are the three first sites to receive significant investments, including major upgrades in beauty, homeware, and technology departments.
The London store was upgraded for £6.5 million and now boasts 41 beauty counters or mini-shops. This represents a 24% increase in the footprint. There are also 175 brands of beauty products, representing a 15% increase.
The Inkey List is one of the new brands, along with Mac, Skin + Me and Nudestix. The new brands will include Mac, Skin + Me, Nudestix and The Ordinary.
John Lewis has also opened a Waterstones store as part of its efforts to diversify their offering.
The department store chain announced that the Oxford Street store would serve as a “testbed for transformational improvements and changes”, which will be then implemented throughout its portfolio.
Ruis said, “John Lewis is buzzing again and we are giving our customers more reasons to shop at our brilliant stores.” We are investing heavily to make sure that our customers receive the quality, service and prices they enjoy about John Lewis.
Ruis returned to John Lewis in this year, after more than 10 years of running retail stores including Jigsaw and Anthropologie. He was hired to revitalize the department store. John Lewis has been struggling with increased competition from Marks & Spencer online and high costs of running large stores, as footfall has not fully recovered since the pandemic.
Ruis has reinstated its “never-knowingly-undersold” price match pledge, two years after abandoning it. The company will now match prices with 25 of its competitors, including Amazon, Next, and M&S, in 34 stores and on the internet.
Pippa Wicks was Ruis’s previous boss. She replaced the century-old promise, which had been a major drag on the company’s profitability. In addition, she parted ways with the agency that created the famous Christmas campaigns over the past decade. She launched John Lewis’s affordable Anyday range.
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